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Seven Cups

Terroir is becoming an increasingly important consideration in selecting tea for the North American specialty tea market, as was reflected in the courses and show floor interactions at the 2013 World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Terroir and the French phrase “gout de terroir” have been more frequently used by the wine industry in speaking of “the taste of the earth,” or “a sense of place.” The word is also employed to describe those signature flavor characteristics of artisanally crafted tea that are direct results of growth condition and location.

Sometimes a class or a book just will not provide a sufficient substitute to the depth or richness of experience of being at origin.

Going to the places where tea is grown and processed can offer several advantages. You will be able to interact with the people who create tea. You can get a better sense of differences in tea quality and grades of tea. If the experience is participatory, you may even gain some new skills. Tea tourism can give you greater understanding and appreciation of tea.

The published content does well explaining the basic concepts of how yellow tea differs from green tea.

I wish they had talked about what to expect the tea tasting experience to encompass. It is true that reputable vendors with quality yellow tea are few and far between. I am more inclined to trust yellow tea from Seven Cups and Jing Tea.

It has been a while since I’ve had any. I need to dig into my cabinet and remind myself of its beauty. I do recall very mild astringency like starchiness with flavor components close to yellow bean sprout, or fresh tender bamboo sprout.

Then there are a few things there that (hopefully) will be cleaned up soon:

1. Some links seem broken, or out of date. For example, I never could get the yellowtea.net link to work, and Google could not find it either.

2. Basic fact-check didn’t catch some errors. Jun Shan, near Dong Ting Lake, is correctly described as in Hunan Province. But there is a link to an image of Dong Ting Lake (related to Bi Luo Chun green tea). The Dong Ting associated with bi luo chun is over 400 miles away in Jiangsu Province.

What I would add:

Yellow tea can get further distinguished into the traditional and better-known types like Jun Shan Yin Zhen, Meng Ding Huang Ya, and Mo Gan Huang Ya. Vicony Teas and this BaiDu entry explain how there are also general categories of yellow tea, like Yellow Little Leaf and Yellow Large Leaf. There are specifically named yellow teas within each of those categories. I have seen Huo Shan Huang Ya on the market, and I believe I have seen Huang Shan Huang Ya at least once.

A look at Seven Cups in the areas of quality, selection, and tea community.

Quality: Overall, Seven Cups exudes quality. Their product pages go to great length to give background on their teas. Most of the time, you can find the precise harvest date, varietal used, and tea master who crafted or grew the tea. The thorough introductory information about Chinese teas and tea types further enhances the feeling that Seven Cups know how to select good teas. In my personal experience, this has held true. Their teas are as good as,(and often superior to) the the selection of Chinese teas from other large-to-medium size, U.S.-based retailers.

Selection: The selection could be daunting and complex to newcomers. At the time of post, there were over 25 wulongs available. These are categorized by province of origin. Of course, a person could simply scroll down the entire list as well. Among these wulongs, some were the same kind of tea (e.g. different grades, years of Wuyi Shui Xian). The more tea-initiated will be in the stronger position to know which tea profiles they prefer, the more optimal harvest season/year, and how age/freshness come into play. Some roasted wulongs, for example, may benefit from the mellowing effects of time. But will a mellowed tea from an inferior season outshine a new roast from a superior growing season?

Tea Community: Seven Cups can be found on both Facebook and Twitter. Both have at least daily activity, with comments and feedback from Seven Cups customers and staff members. The company’s blog gets new posts at least monthly, and newsletters of the past have included personal profiles of customers. Seven Cups offers even deeper interaction via tea tours to the back country farms of China.

Conclusion: If you are familiar with Chinese teas, Seven Cups will give you a one-stop for quality options. If you are newer to teas, and uncertain what to choose, there is much to learn on the site. At the same time, newcomers may also suffer from uncertainty caused by information overload. Never fret, as Seven Cups interacts with its tea community, so there are ways to get a feel for popular and well-received teas in their selection.

Origin. Harvest. Varietal. Grade. Processing choices. These are some of the factors to consider when choosing an artisanal loose leaf tea. Depending on the kind of tea, these choices are generally more straightforward.

But teas like Dan Cong throw a wrench into the works. Dan Cong is a Chinese wulong (oolong) with a history that extends back to the Song Dynasty. There are extremely rare dan cong tea trees that date from that time, still producing treasured tea. Other tea bushes from the area are clones, daughters of those ancient mothers or other tea bushes of the area.

Sometimes dan cong (单枞) teas come from a single tree/bush. Sometimes they come from a set of bushes that are clonal daughters of the same mother bush. Some varieties have almond aromas. Others have peach, orchid, honey, magnolia, or osmanthus aromas.

With the staggering number of considerations to make, choosing the right dan cong can be challenging. So I asked some of my tea colleagues to talk about how to recognize and select dan cong teas.

Imen Shan (a.k.a. IS) is Owner of Tea Habitat, an L.A. based and online store specializing in dan cong teas. She has also blogged prolifically on the subject of dan congs. Some of this material is directly from her posts.

1. What makes a dancong tea true and authentic?

JC: Region, varietal and processing skill are critical. The rich, volcanic soil of Phoenix Mountain, its altitude, clean air, spring water, and weather all shape the character of authentic dan cong tea.

AH: The Phoenix Mountain Range covers a lot of ground, and the question of authenticity is a multilevel issue. The tallest mountain in the range, Wudongshan, is where dan cong was originally grown and some of the trees there date back to the Song Dynasty. There are 24 families that control Wudong, and all of the tea grown there comes through them. Starting price for those teas recently ranged $400 – $500 USD per kilo ($181 – $227 USD per lb). These teas are usually bought by collectors, tea masters, and private connoisseurs before they get to the open market.

Moving outward from the specific peak of Wudongshan, one can find dan congs in the larger Chaozhou “zone.” These teas often lack the maturity and depth of history as those original Wudong Mountain trees/bushes. This zone is also home to many of the “commercial” grade dan cong gardens consisting of multiple bushes cloned from a mother tree.

Good dan congs are very strong in taste with the astringent/bitterness as part of their complex character. The larger American tea palate may not be accustomed to this character profile, especially at such a high price. I don’t expect that this tea will be popular until the American palate matures, and people are willing to pay the price.

IS: They must be Feng Huang Shui Xian varietal grown within the Phoenix Mountain range in Chao An County. Wudong mountain produces the best flavor dan cong teas.

Cloning technology is widely used by tea plantations, but do not expect tea from cloned trees to taste exactly like that from the mother trees. The age of the tree dictates the maturity and richness of the dan cong’s flavor. Cloning allows for the production of dan cong tea for commercial trade. Because the clones come from dan cong trees, they are marketed as dan cong commercial products. It’s a commercial product name, just like commercial Da Hong Pao.

JW: It would then seem safe starting assumption that much of the dan cong available in the US and online is actually from the lower “Shui Xian,” or “commercial” grade being sourced from clonal gardens in the greater Chaozhou or Phoenix Mountain “zone.”

2. Why are there so many grades and flavors of dan cong? How do names like Huang Zhi Xiang (orange flower fragance) or Zhi Lan Xiang (orchid fragrance) relate to the tea’s grade or quality?

IS: There are 3 sub divisions from the main category Phoenix (Feng Huang) Shui Xian:
(1) Dan Cong, (2) Lang Cai and (3) Shui Xian by grade. Within each sub division, there are 4 more grades of each: special grade, first grade, second grade and third grade. Each grade has 3 ranks. This makes a total of 36 grade/rankings. In the ranking, Dan cong 3rd grade 3rd rank is better than Lang Cai special grade 1st rank.

Dan Cong is the highest grade due to careful selection from the vast number of Feng Huang Shui Xian varietal tea trees. In the past, single bushes were harvested and processed one tree at a time. Today, single bush processing is still practiced in some cases, averaging 3 lbs of final product per tree per year. Most of these limited production teas don’t travel out of Chaozhou.
In the last 50 years, the Chinese government has attempted to better systematize the use of fragrance names in the commercial market. 10 dan cong fragrances were recognized:

These are signature fragrance types of dan cong teas and commercial product names for clones. Old trees that have those same fragrances are referred to by their individual tree names.

To illustrate the confusing nature of this approach, consider Huang Zhi Xiang (orange flower fragrance). There are 40+ varietals that can produce the flavor of Huang Zhi Xiang (HZX). Each village named their own HZX after their village name or mountain name. There now exists Wu Dong HZX and Shi Tou HZX. There are also Qing Xiang (light fragrance) varietals, and Nong Xiang (intense fragrance) varietals. Overall, more Huang Zhi Xiang is produced than any of the other top 10 fragrances.

Names of old bushes can be anything you can imagine. These names do not change much. Thief Shit, Duck Shit, Old Duck, Big Dark Leaf, Song Zhong, Song Zhong Jai (Next generation Song Zhong), Jiang MuXiang (Ginger Mom), Red Lady Umbrella, Dong Fang Hong, are just a few of the many colorful names of old trees.

AH: Tea left to grow on its own, relatively untended for centuries, will be subject to a lot of cross-pollination. When the seeds are planted or are spread naturally, different unexpected varietals occur. Asexual reproduction (e.g. clonals) is the only way to ensure that you will get the same cultivar. Planting by seed is very unpredictable. It is not hard to find the tea plants growing in forest in the mountains of the Phoenix Mountain. Just because it is a unique bush doesn’t necessarily mean it is good tea. Aside from the commercially recognized dan cong fragrances, new varietals may develop. Sometimes these qi zhong (surprise, or unusual varietal) have excellent character, and sometimes they do not.

JW: It sounds as if the fragrance name gives no real indication of the tea’s origin (e.g. specific mountain peak) or quality level. Quality level could still vary greatly within a fragrance category as well.

3. Is this range of variation sustainable, or will we see a move toward more uniformity in dan cong being offered by tea retailers?

AH: I don’t think that you will find Chaozhou tea people being willing to do anything to change the market. Chaozhou is really a very tricky place to source tea. There is a lot of money being made the way things are. There is plenty of tea being grown at lower elevations that is getting passed off as the real thing. The only way that I would trust that a dan cong came from Wudong and one of the 24 families, I would want to be buying from them directly. I would also expect to be paying a high price. Dan congs are a very small specialized niche in the Chinese market.

IS: This is not a trend decided by the sellers. As tea drinkers become more educated about specialty teas they will better know what they like, and will most likely stay within a small range of quality grade teas.

4. How can a tea drinker know if she is purchasing an authentic dan cong?

AH: One of the most certain ways is if it was purchased directly from one of the 24 Wudong families.

JC: The best way to know if the tea is authentic is to know if the tea is from the origin of Chaoan Phoenix Mountain Area in Guangdong province. Finding a reliable tea company is another good way. For an experienced tea lover, learning the signature characteristics and flavor profiles will also help.

IS: The easiest way is by finding a reliable source and familiarizing yourself with commercial grade and single tree grade dan congs. Once you can recognize and memorize their characteristics, you can distinguish dan congs.

JW: Special thanks to Austin, Imen, and Jason for their eager participation in this dialog. In the process of researching, I also discovered a relatively newer form of dan cong from a location distinct from the Phoenix Mountain range. Ling Tou, or white leaf dan cong will have to be a topic of future conversation.

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Walker Tea Review- a tea blog with tea reviews and tea tastings.
Want to see a tea reviewed? Contact me: jason@walkerteareview.com